Social Media Privacy for Teachers

Introduction

As a kid, you probably never gave much thought to your teachers’ personal lives. Maybe you never even imagined they had a life outside of school grounds.

As a teacher now, you know how far off the mark those assumptions were. Being a teacher doesn’t mean you cease being human. You have a social life, too – though your students might be shocked to realize that teachers actually have a home outside of school, go grocery shopping or to the movies, and spend time with their own friends and family, just like everyone else.

But even though you do – and should! – have a life outside school, that doesn’t mean your students need to know all about it. Unfortunately, being a teacher means you have to be extra-vigilant about guarding your privacy.

Before the rise of social media, that wasn’t such an issue. Sure, you might run into your students or their parents while you’re out shopping or at the movies, but that’s not exactly an invasion of privacy (unless they’re questioning your culinary or cinematic choices).

But when 81% of teens are on social media, as a teacher you need to be careful about what you’re sharing and who you’re sharing it with, or face dire consequences.

That doesn’t mean you should avoid social media altogether – in fact, using social media and even using it to interact with your students can be a powerful way to connect with them.

So, how do you strike this balance? Facebook and other platforms don’t make it easy, but if you dig around in your settings, you can avoid issues while still connecting with friends, family, and even students online. Here’s how.

Illustrated Guide

Even with all of the privacy tweaks you can make to social media profiles, these sites are still run by companies you don’t control. Privacy setting defaults may change over time, and companies may share your information internally with third parties. Check your settings regularly and never post anything that you wouldn’t want accidentally leaked.

If you follow each of these suggestions, you’ll be able to engage with your friends on Facebook, and have fun without compromising your privacy.

Instagram

Instagram privacy settings aren’t as robust as Facebook:

Default settings allow everyone and anyone to see your profile and posts

You can’t change those settings on your desktop or laptop

Fortunately, you can change those settings using your mobile device

On iOS devices:

Click or tap on the profile icon

Tap the “settings” icon

Turn on the “private account” setting

On Android

Tap the profile icon

Tap the “settings” icon

Turn on “Private Account”

On Windows Phones

Tap the profile icon

Tap “Edit Profile”

Turn on “Posts are Private”

Once your account is private:

You will be safe while on-site but not off-site

Even hashtagged photos won’t be available publicly if you’ve set everything to private

If you share a photo to another social network:

The image will be seen on that network

A permalink will follow back to your profile

Users won’t be able to see it unless they are approved followers

Watch out for publicly commenting on another Instagram publicly-shared post or photo, because:

Your username will be clickable to everyone

This happens even if your profile is set to “private”

Avoid uploading images through third-party applications:

They can be indexed in search engines

This happens even when your Instagram profile is set to “private”

If you’ve already accidentally posted through a third-party access, revoke access for that app:

Log in on your laptop

Click on your name and photo

Select “Edit Profile”

Select “Manage Applications”

Click “Revoke Access” on the upper right of each application

This is the only way to be sure that no 3rd-party app is posting on your behalf.

Finally, disable follower suggestions to minimize accidentally following students or parents:

Click your profile picture from a desktop or laptop computer

Click “edit profile”

Un-check “Similar Account Suggestions”

Click “submit”

Twitter

Protecting your privacy on Twitter is easy. All you have to do is:

Access your security and privacy settings through the settings icon

Scroll to “tweet privacy”

Check the box labeled, “Protect my Tweets”

Click “Save”

Even when others follow you, they won’t see your tweets

WhatsApp

Like many social media sites, WhatsApp sets your default privacy settings to public, but you can easily change that. The process varies only slightly between different mobile devices.

On iOS:

Go to “Settings”

Select “Account”

Click on “Privacy”

On Android:

Go to “Menu”

Click on “Settings”

Select “Account”

Click on “Privacy”

On Blackberry:

Go to “Settings”

Select “Account”

Click on “Privacy Settings”

On Blackberry 10:

Swipe down from the top of the screen to access “Settings”

Click on “Privacy Settings”

On the Nokia S40:

Go to “Options”

Click on “Settings”

Select “Account”

Click on “Privacy”

On the Nokia S60:

Go to “Options”

Click on “Settings”

Select “General”

Click on “Privacy”

On Windows Phone:

Tap the three dots - the Settings icon at the bottom of the screen

Click on “Settings”

Select “Account”

Click on “Privacy”

General Visibility tips:

Change the visibility of your profile photo and status to either “My Contacts” or “Nobody”

The safest option is “Nobody,” since nobody will be able to see anything

If you shut off read receipts, you won’t send them or be able to see other posts.

Read receipts will always be seen in group chats regardless of your privacy settings.

Don’t allow WhatsApp to track your location when prompted.

Even with all of the privacy tweaks you can make to social media profiles, these sites are still run by companies you don’t control. Privacy setting defaults may change over time, and companies may share your information internally with third parties. Check your settings regularly and never post anything that you wouldn’t want accidentally leaked.